Author: DW

Germany is producing more non-alcoholic beer as consumer tastes change. Meanwhile, a top court is reviewing a Bavarian law that allows police intervention before a concrete threat has emerged. DW has more.

Volkswagen has built one of the largest workforces in the global auto industry. At nearly 630,000 people — 680,000 if you count joint ventures in China — VW employs around 60% more workers than Toyota, 140% more than Stellantis and nearly 240% more than Ford. That headcount was once a sign of Germany’s industrial might and VW’s huge profits. Now, it’s become a massive burden, one that’s forcing the company to make painful job cuts to survive against agile Chinese competitors. After already trimming thousands of positions last year as profits came under pressure, Volkswagen is now preparing to slash up to 100,000 jobs worldwide, including…

Quasars emit primordial light. They are far, far away, both in terms of time and distance. They are easy to confuse with other celestial sources of light, such as stars that are closer to Earth.  But when we do detect them, they tell astronomers a lot about the earliest moments of the universe, knowledge that helps us learn more about our place in it. The European Space Agency’s Euclid space-based telescope launched in 2024 to map the universe. ESA has now released images of two of the most ancient quasars ever located.  They are just two out of a crop of 31 quasars…

Belgium secured its place in the World Cup quarterfinals after beating the US 4-1 in Seattle. Attacker Charles de Ketelaere scored twice for Belgium, with Hans Vanaken scoring the third after a mistake by US goalkeeper Matt Freese. Romelu Lukaku added the fourth in stoppage time after another mistake in the US defense Germany-born Malik Tillman temporarily equalized for the US in the 31st minute. The defeat signals the end of the US’ World Cup campaign, marking the last host country to have been eliminated. Belgium will face Spain in Los Angeles on Friday, July 10. FIFA decision causes uproar…

More than 12,000 people gathered in the center of Pamplona in northern Spain on Monday to celebrate the start of the Festival of San Fermin, known for the running of the bulls. The festival kicked off with the traditional “Chupinazo,” a small rocket fired from the town hall balcony over a jam-packed plaza. Revelers douse themselves in grape juice and wine Image: Eduardo Sanz/Europa Press/ABACA/picture alliance The revelers celebrated by pouring wine and grape juice over each other, while  holding up red scarves, singing and dancing,  and shouting “San Fermin, San Fermin, San Fermin.”The red scraves symbolize unity with Pamplona’s…

China’s Tianwen-2 space probe has reached its target, the near-Earth asteroid Kamo’oalewa, after a journey of about 400 days, the China National Space Administration (CNSA) said on Monday.  The mission, which was launched in May 2025, is an important milestone for China as it tries to match or overtake the US and Europe in deep-space exploration and is the first Chinese attempt to collect samples from an asteroid. Scientists believe that samples taken from asteroids — rocky bodies orbiting the sun — could give clues about how the solar system came into being and evolved. What do we know about the Tianwen-2 mission and…

US President Donald Trump on Sunday thanked football’s world governing body FIFA for suspending Falorin Balogun’s ban that allows the US star striker to play against Belgium this week. Balogun was given a straight red card during the Round of 32 match between the World Cup co-hosts and Bosnia and Herzegovina on Thursday for accidentally planting his studs high on a defender’s ankle. Balogun’s teammates and his coach, Mauricio Pochettino, had said the red card, which was given after an intervention by the Video Assistant Referee (VAR), was harsh because the star striker had not intended to harm the defender. According…

Germany’s Federal Court of Justice (BGH) has ruled in favor of the Jehovah’s Witnesses in a dispute over a unique archive that meticulously documents the persecution of its adherents in photographs, letters, reports from the Gestapo secret police, arrest warrants and death sentences. The religious community of Jehovah’s Witnesses was one of the groups persecuted by the Nazi regime during the Holocaust. From 1933 to 1945, around 15,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses were persecuted across Nazi-occupied Europe. Around 4,500 were sent to concentration camps where they were forced to wear purple triangles. Over 1,800 were murdered. Annemarie Kusserow, herself a victim of Nazi…

Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz this week announced a crackdown on the high number of sick days the country takes. The move follows research published in January by the Berlin-based IGES Institute, showing that German workers now take an average of 19.5 working days as sick leave per year. That figure is a noticeable increase from about 13 days in 2018. As part of Merz’s proposals, from January next year, workers will no longer be able to get a sick note over the phone. They must visit a doctor in person and on the first day of illness.  The measure adds a layer of difficulty to taking…

As had been widely expected ever since Germany’s shock exit to Paraguay at the 2026 World Cup, Julian Nagelsmann has left as national team head coach, the German Football Association (DFB) confirmed on Friday. The 38-year-old resigned from the job just three years after arriving and well before the end of his contract, which was to expire after the 2028 European Championship. The renewal of his deal in January 2025 forced the DFB into tricky negotiations, and led to a reported three-hour secret meeting the day before the official announcement. “This decision was anything but easy for me,” Nagelsmann said in a statement. “My top priority…